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File Sizes and Download Time Page 2 |
The simplest thing to say about this is keep you file sizes small. The main culprits that cause large files are endless scrolling text/pages and graphics and special effects. Some of this is addressed in other areas of Section 1, but here are some guidelines:
Large Blocks of Scrolling Text or Long Pages
You've probably visited web sites where the scroll bar on the right edge of the browser shows a teensy little scroll box at the top, and you know the page just goes on and on and on.......
This is a good place to bring up "The Fold". This refers to the fold in a newspaper- the major headlines (REALLY important stuff) are "Above The Fold" so people can see them first when the paper is in the news stand or vending machine. Items "Below The Fold" may be important, but not as important as the items Above The Fold.
Anything on a web page that cannot be seen because it's off the bottom of the screen, and has to be scrolled down to, is Below The Fold. Having some of the page below the fold is OK, but don't make your readers have to scroll endlessly to view the information.
Try to avoid that! Rather than having a long page, break it up into several pages and link them together. That's what I did for these two pages on File Size and Download Time. It's an extremely important topic in web design, and there is enough to say about it that I felt enough space should be devoted to it. BUT, I didn't want it all on one page, so I split it up into two.
(Imagine if a newspaper, rather than being a series of pages and sections, was just printed as one long strip of paper that you had to scroll to read, and find articles of interest. Does that sound like it would be fun? The same thing applies to web sites!)
Graphics/Special Effects
These can take up a lot of room and make pages load very slowly. There is no attempt made here to go in depth into formatting graphics; that's a huge subject on its own. Graphics and Special Effects are covered in their own area of Section1.
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